Queer rights activists abstained from holding a demon­stra­tion in Tbilisi for this year’s Inter­na­tion­al Day Against Homo­pho­bia, Trans­pho­bia, and Biphobia over safety concerns. Next month, Tbilisi is expected to host its first ever queer pride event.[Read more…]

Queer women in Russia’s North Caucasus face attempts to ‘cure’ them, beatings, rape, forced marriages, and murder, according to a report inter­view­ing a number of queer women from the region. While some gay men have been able to flee, the report said women were less able to do so as their money, movement, careers, and private lives were con­trolled by male ‘guardians’.

The Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has hinted that the dis­ap­pear­ance of singer Zelimkhan ‘Zelim’ Bakayev was the doing of his own family. Kadyrov made the remarks during a gov­ern­ment meeting in Grozny broad­cast­ed by the state-run Grozny TV on 17 January.

Inter­na­tion­al queer rights group All Out, together with the Russian LGBT Network, have launched an online campaign urging Russian author­i­ties to inves­ti­gate the dis­ap­pear­ance of Chechen singer Zelimkhan Bakayev. #Jus­tice­ForZe­lim launched on 8 January — five months after his dis­ap­pear­ance.

Russian inves­tiga­tive bodies are not properly inves­ti­gat­ing the campaign of per­se­cu­tion against queer people in Chechnya, Russian rights activists announced during a press con­fer­ence on 16 October in Moscow. The activists have been assisting queer Chechens flee the republic.

Despite reports of violence and dis­crim­i­na­tion against queer people often hitting the news, for Wagdy (Egypt), Riri (Azer­bai­jan), and Misha (Nigeria), Georgia rep­re­sents a safe place where they can finally be them­selves. While some find a new life in Georgia free from fear, the country’s opaque asylum pro­ce­dures threaten to send some of them back, their presence deemed ‘con­tra­dic­to­ry to the interests of the country’.

Queer rights activists have presented a petition signed by almost 38,000 people worldwide to the Georgian gov­ern­ment in support of two gay men, Levan Beri­an­idze and Tornike Kusiani. The two were allegedly assaulted on homo­pho­bic grounds by strangers and then by police.

An uncon­firmed number of queer people were detained and faced humil­i­at­ing treatment by police in Baku last week, according to Azer­bai­jani queer rights groups. The police claim that the raids were conducted to crack down on pros­ti­tu­tion.